Innovate Memphis Launches Hub For Memphis Transit Options

Commute Options, a new website designed to decrease the use of single-occupancy vehicles in Memphis, launched last week to encourage Memphians to use other commute options, such as walking, biking, ride-sharing or public transit whenever possible.

Photo: Eso Tolson

The Bluff City’s bike-friendly culture features bike lanes on city streets, protected green lanes, bike racks, bike shops, and co-ops, bike-related organizations, group rides and cycling events. In fact, in 2012, Biking Magazine named Memphis its “most improved bike city“. With its updated biking infrastructure, Memphis is a great city for commuting to and from work by bike.

Low-cost bikes are available at community shops such as Revolutions Bicycle Co-op in Cooper-Young and Oasis Bike Shop in North Memphis. These are tremendously valuable services in a city where more than 40,000 households don’t have access to a car. In addition, many Memphis neighborhoods have seen increased walkability in the last few years.

Other transit options like taking the bus and carpooling or vanpooling encourages a more productive travel time. The State of Tennessee offers High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (HOVs) to promote ride-sharing. HOVs move more people in fewer vehicles, reducing the demand for new highways and increasing the efficiency of existing highways. The average Memphis driver wastes 43 hours each year in traffic. Ride-sharing saves time because designated lanes of the interstate are reserved solely for HOVs, allowing ride-share commuters to move more quickly.

Photo: MATA

Commuting by bus is made easier with apps such as TransLoc Rider, which lets you quickly locate specific routes and stops and see the location of any bus in your vicinity. It provides real-time updates with your bus’s location and alerts to tell you when your bus is approaching.

About Commute Options:

Commute Options, an initiative of Innovate Memphis, is designed to decrease the use of single-occupancy vehicles in Memphis by encouraging Memphians to use other commute options, such as walking, biking, and ride-sharing or public transit whenever possible. The benefits include cost savings on fuel, maintenance and parking; improved physical and mental health; less vehicle maintenance; better use of travel time; reduced air pollution and better city infrastructure.

Right now, Commute Options is in a pilot phase with a number of small to medium-sized businesses who are encouraging their employees to use these commute options. The ultimate hope is to expand this program to larger businesses and make biking, walking, carpooling and using public transit as much a part of the culture as it is in other cities such as Portland or Minneapolis.